America attracted many of the brightest and strongest people from around the world. It did so by offering the opportunity to better their lives through merit and effort. They came to change their future by finding something they could provide society and then bringing it to market. They didn’t need wealth, just an idea, a few nickels, and sweat equity.
All these people needed was to scrape together a few nickels to build their first widget. They are in business if they can sell it for profit, make another, and repeat the process.
Soon, they could have enough money to make two widgets (then four, eight, sixteen, etc.). Eventually, they go from producing widgets in their spare time to needing to go full-time and hire help. The process may take years, but they could go from broke to wealthy with nothing but ideas, effort, and enough money to make the first widget.
We don’t live in such an environment anymore. Now, you need to get permits and licenses while doing everything the way the government tells you to. You often face a mountain of paperwork and bureaucratic red tape to avoid fines, fees, or being shut down. You may have to take license classes and pay for test-taking and license fees. You must register a fictitious name statement, create a legal entity, open a bank account, and more. You must include the government in many aspects of the business and ask for permission to begin (and continue).
You will always have the burden of keeping all the paperwork so that come tax time, you aren’t put out of business by not having the paperwork needed to prove some of the money you earned still belongs to you.
The expenses required to start many businesses are now a barrier to entry for many talented and creative Americans. Many people have brilliant ideas that could change society but need to be motivated to do so. All of this is due to the obstacles placed by the government. The creation of these obstacles is a betrayal of the public trust when the people we elect to manage our resources create laws depriving us of our right to pursue our happiness.
Many of the regulations created serve as barriers to entrepreneurs. Many were put in place, resulting from large companies lobbying for regulations with the specific intent of crippling would-be competitors. Politicians have a fiduciary duty to represent the people, not companies. When politicians take money from companies, they now have the company’s interest as a priority. Donations from lobbyists deprive citizens of representation.
As this continues, the American dream slowly dies as the middle class is destroyed and a fascist partnership between big business and government develops.
The upward mobility of the citizenry is the common enemy of big business and government. For government, a wealthy citizenry has little to no need for government services. Self-sufficient people don’t need government. It is the poor who become dependent on aid from the government.
For businesses, an emerging middle class can produce competitors who can afford to start competing companies. These startups can and will deprive incumbent companies of their existing market share. Even worse for the incumbent companies are entrepreneurs who invent a game-changing technology that advances humanity but leaves them in the dust. Imagine what Kodak would have done to suppress digital imagery if they could. Innovation is a gift to society but an existential threat to big business.
Because business and government have a common enemy, they have a natural predisposition to partner to interfere with the people’s ability to become financially prosperous. When a partnership between big business and government takes form, the seeds of fascism have been sown.
A great place to start freeing the poor and middle class from the deprivation of opportunity would be to establish a “Startup Class Business” designation. Entrepreneurs shall be free to begin with one widget and no regulation. By listing SCB on their labels, they notify customers that they are a Startup Class Business. i.e., “Bills Pickles SCB” Rather than an LLC, Inc., or other legal entity.
Customers know that the SCB designation means there is an implied risk when purchasing since regulations don’t bind the producer. Many products produced today cost the consumer multiples of what it costs to create without being compliant with regulations. Customers would rather pay less for an affordable, unregulated product.
The people, by default, have the right to the choice to pay less for an unregulated product. The government strips the people of this right (usually to satisfy donors). Quality of life is reduced for the public while the quality of life for the wealthy and the politicians increases.
An SCB business customer accepts implied risk and wants lower prices. The producer wants to avoid unnecessary expenses along with lawsuits. People once were free to do as they please so long as they cause no harm to others. Courts are there in case they do. This is the way we created our system in the first place. You are free to do what you want as long as you don’t harm another, and courts are there for people to sue if harmed. It’s your right to pursue your happiness, and the government can’t infringe on your pursuit of happiness or liberty.
A nation’s wealth is in direct proportion to the health of its small business environment. The small business world is where individuals in towns around the country can solve the needs of their local community while employing the area’s residents. Small business owners need the ability to observe local dynamics, find solutions, and implement them quickly without bureaucratic red tape. When such is the case, communities are highly productive.
Small businesses create most of the nation’s wealth, and nearly two-thirds of Americans work in this environment. A government that promotes the general welfare of a country must focus on ensuring the healthiest small business environment possible. One of the primary responsibilities of government is to promote the general welfare.
Might we remind people of the purpose and legitimate role of our government:
‘We, the People of the United States, in Order to form a perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.”
As always, more freedom leads to more productivity. Free people don’t have to ask permission to be productive. It is time our government respects our right to pursue our happiness and the liberty to do so. The right of the people to produce without limits will determine our standing as the world’s superpower.